[gothic-l] Reconstructing "Breath"

[keth at ONLINE.NO]

>On Sat, 14 Oct 2000, M. Carver wrote:

>> though the concepts of breath and spirit are closely linked in etymologies
>> often.

That is because Latin 'spiritus' means airstream, breath, life, exhalation
or evaporation of moisture or the vapors of other fluids, smell, spirit.
An example is alcohol, that has all these properties.
That is why, in the MiddleAges, alcohol was called AQUA VITAE
(water of life).



>> I would not presume to extend the meaning to andi so far nor create
>> andw for such a purpose in view of alternatives. Yet perhaps, when one
>> translates the words "breath of life", one could be persuaded to use one
>> word such as *andi or ahma as substitute for the entire phrase.

Old Norse 'hann andadisk' means 'he died' or 'gave up the spirit'.


>Breath sounds very like "breeze", perhaps both come from
>the very same  altered form.

This word is supposed to be of Romanic origin, e.g. Italian brezza,
Portugese brisa, briza. It is supposed to have come to Scandinavia
(bris) by way of Low Dutch (brise).


>BTW, in Spanish we have the word :"alma", somehow "ahma" seems
>closer to it  than  the Latin "anima".

Latin "anima" is traditionally translated to English as "soul".
"Spirit and soul" = spiritus et anima.

Keth



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